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WYLIE SHOWS GOOD PACE IN LATEST BRITISH GT EVENT

Ross Wylie took away many positives including scoring his best result of the season despite suffering cruel luck in the latest races in the British GT Championship at Snetterton last weekend (23 Aug). The 23-year-old McLaren GT “Young Driver” from Thornhill near Dumfries, sharing his Von Ryan Racing McLaren 650S GT3 car with Northern Ireland’s Andrew Watson, posted sixth and 13th positions at the Norfolk venue.

But despite Wylie netting his fifth top-10 placing in the seventh race of the year, the Scotsman was left to reflect on what might have been. Having handed over his McLaren to Watson at mid-distance, the latter challenged for the lead around the fast, sweeping 2.97-mile Snetterton circuit.

But Watson was forced to serve a “stop-go” penalty for a pit-stop infringement with just 15mins remaining. Then early in the second one-hour race, Watson incurred a puncture necessitating an unscheduled pit-stop after contact with another car on a treacherously wet track. Ross duly brought the McLaren home an unrepresentative 13th.

The ninth and final round of the British GT Championship, a single two-hour race, is staged at Donington Park in Leicestershire on 13 September.

“At first glance, the Snetterton weekend seems like another missed opportunity but there were a number of positives to take away. We are now consistently fighting at the front in qualifying and in the races. I was vying for ‘pole’ in my qualifying session but ultimately had to settle for fourth fastest. Our race pace was good and a podium was looking very likely until we got a ‘stop-go’ penalty for a pit-stop infringement which was frustrating but sixth place, our best race result of the season, wasn’t a total disaster.

“But the second race was a total wash out. Andrew started the race but unfortunately picked up a puncture due to contact on the treacherously slippery track and we went a lap down having to make an unscheduled pit-stop. Our speed was good in the wet before the race was red flagged.”